REGIONAL CHANNELS is a key market segment driving demand for you have got to fight for every project, but solutions being sourced by channel partners you do not get handed projects. You need to from Mayflex. The real estate investments work hard and make sure you get them.” driven by tourism and the upcoming
Mayflex’ s infrastructure division sells Expo 2020 in Dubai are examples of the passive structured cabling solutions demand drivers for solutions that Mayflex including CAT6, CAT6a, CAT7 cabling, is providing.“ It is a major sector for us and copper and fibre optic cabling, voice we will have a great success. It is probable, backbone cabling, power distribution units, there is not a hotel chain that we have not and intelligent management systems. In dealt with.” this division, Excel is the primary vendor
Across the Middle East and Africa region, and has been gaining market share from UAE is the primary market for Mayflex and all its competitors. Mayflex does not sell accounts for close to 50 % of its revenue. structured cabling from any other vendor. Mayflex sees strong demand for its solutions“ We are taking big steps and have from channel partners in Qatar and Saudi been taking a lot of market share from Arabia, followed by Oman, Kuwait and competition. It is only Excel here because Bahrain. Across Africa, Mayflex sees higher we are the manufacturer. There was too demand from selective countries including much conflict to take our brand and others, Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania. plus we have big competition. We are a
“ It is a very congested market, but it is a major player in those markets,” explains lot for our brands and vendors. It is not that McLetchie.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Across Africa Mayflex sees higher demand from selective countries including Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania
• Across networking and electronic security divisions Mayflex does not own any brands and business model is pure distribution
• Brand awareness, trust, relationship, product, people, they are major drivers
• Channel partners need to build confidence with Mayflex, vendor partners, credit controllers
• Engineers at Excel Cabling Partners and Excel Solutions Partners have to go through refresher training and certification programmes every two years
• If channel partners have a consistent trading pattern, meet their agreements and adhere to them, credit terms can be extended
• It is not that you have got to fight for every project but you do not get handed projects
• It is probable there is not a hotel chain that we have not dealt with
• Mayflex and Excel channel partners need to have financial strength to close any project once they have initiated it
• Mayflex extends credit terms to partners that have good trading history
• Qualified Excel Cabling Partners and Excel Solutions Partners can submit their testing reports after installation to obtain 25-year Excel warranty
• Recently on-boarded channel partners need to be able to walk before they can run a marathon
• There is strong demand for converged IP solutions and a key requirement is skills competency of channel partners
• UAE is the primary market for Mayflex and accounts for close to 50 % of revenue
• We are very sensible when we give the terms that we give
• We have been trading for a hundred years and we are a financially stable company
Across the networking and electronic security divisions, Mayflex does not own any brands, and the business model is pure distribution. However, Excel’ s structured cabling solutions provides an entry for vendors in Mayflex’ s networking and electronic security divisions.“ It opens up doors and avenues to sell the CCTV, access control, storage, network switches, wireless LAN. The great thing about us is that we are able to solution sell. We are probably very unique. There are not many other competitors that can provide these types of solutions.”
Another driver for Mayflex’ s solutions, is the increasing number of devices in the converged IP space that are leveraging new generation networking infrastructure, that is CAT6 and above.“ More and more Extra Low Power or ELV devices are being set up on a network. I think that is why consultants like us as well, because they do not need to go to multiple different vendors. They can come to us and we help identify a solution for them,” elaborates McLetchie.
While Mayflex acknowledges, there is a strong demand for its converged IP solutions built on Excel structured cabling, a key requirement in the delivery process is the skills competency of its channel partners. Excel structured cabling, after installation and testing by a certified partner, carries a 25-year warranty. Some of its vendor security products carry a three-year and fiveyear warranty. But this works from the assumption that channel partners are competent and certified in their end-toend installation and testing process.
A precondition for Excel partner status is the certification courses they go through. Engineers at both Excel Cabling Partners and Excel Solutions Partners have to go through refresher training and certification programmes every two years and attend annual briefing events. Only qualified Excel Cabling Partners and Excel Solutions Partners can submit their testing reports after installation to obtain a 25-year Excel warranty certificate for the end user site.
23